


Final Days

by TheUnknown2ndCultLeader



Category: IT, Steven king - Fandom, Zombie Apocalypse - Fandom, steven kings IT, stevenking, stevenkingIT, zombie - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Death, Eventual Romance, F/M, M/M, Major character death - Freeform, Post-Zombie Apocalypse, Romance, Slow Burn, Zombie, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 12:15:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20760206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheUnknown2ndCultLeader/pseuds/TheUnknown2ndCultLeader
Summary: As Richie tries to survive this apocalyptic world full of infected zombies, him and his best friend Stan make the mistake of entering the town Derry, once in they find out its full of lunatics hunting down those who make the mistake of wondering inside, as Richie and Stan try to escape they may make new friends, the other victims of Derry, trapped inside will they ever make it out? What about the other people trapped inside? Will he leave with Stan by his side at all? Maybe he'll leave with a new group of friends, or maybe Richie never leaves Derry at all, these may be his final days.





	1. Prince Of Flies

**Author's Note:**

> Heyy, if some of you know of my other fic Get Reddie To Run don't worry! It's still happening but I'm currently stuck, I know where I want the story to go I just don't know how to get there, it's definitely still happening but in the meantime enjoy this story!

Richie wakes up to the familiar yet annoying buzzing sound of flies, as he lazily opens his eyes to see his best friend Stan who is sound asleep, just an arms reach away from his face. Richie looks around taking in the familiar setting of the dilapidated gas station they took refuge in last night from the storm.  
As the tall lanky boy sits up from the gas station floor and stretches his arms above his head he feels some pain in his lower back from spending a night on the cold tiled floor, not that he has been spending many on a comfy bed lately, he looks behind him watching where most of the flies are gathered.

When Richie and Stan first entered the run down gas station to escape the rain, they were shocked from the amount of flies infesting the small building but as they turned the corner of one of the last shelves they found what was keeping all the flies around.  
An immense amount of blood, still red, slimy to the touch, its fresh, slightly oozing through the lines of the tiles, but there's nothing here well nothing that they can see.

Now the blood is a dark brown almost black goo on the floor, as Richie gets up and stands over the mess of flies making its home in it he notices that it isn't just a puddle of blood but a struggle had happened here, a bad struggle, blood had splattered everywhere, bloody hand prints all over the place trying to grab hold of something that wouldn't grip because of the blood.  
The more Richie looks around the more blood he see's but then a trail catches his attention, a trail of black blood leading to the stock room, as he walks towards the door he notices how the "Employees Only!" sign has been flung off and is now laying next to the coffee machine, the sign is almost unreadable with all the blood covering it but then Richie's attention is ripped away to even more flies that seem to be coming out from under the door, this is truly where all the flies have been coming from as Richie is now standing in front of the door he bends down slightly to look through the little window in the door and but he can't see anything it's too dark, so he gently presses his ear against the door for sound but all he can hear at first are the buzzing of flies dancing around in a dark abyss on the other side, but the more he listened the more he heard, the gentle cries and the gentle groans of someone now a shadow of their past self, as they aimlessly shuffle around with the flies.

The shuffles stop, perplexed Richie pulls his back to look through the window but is met with someone looking back at him, the only reaction Richie could have was widening his eyes as a hand instantly bursts through the window to grab him but fortunately Richie was able to jump back and make a dash for it but before he could start his home run he feels his feet slip out from underneath him, now all he can do is close his eyes before his face smashes into the ground but instead of a cold hard tile it's cold hard but also soft and gunky.  
Richie lifts his face he realises he has fallen in the puddle, the blood sticks to the left of his face but also sticking to the puddle, almost string like with flies stuck through out of, blood and flies on Richie's clothes, his skin, on his mouth and in his hair, Richie tries to get up but he can't get a grip on anything and keeps slipping and his panic isn't helping.  
As Richie is gagging and struggling pair of hand grab hold of his collar and rips him free of the fly trap and throws him forward but Richie isn't able to keep his footing and falls again but luckily not on blood this time but on his backpack.

"Get off your ass and on your feet!" Stan yells as he grabs Richie again pulling him to his feet, Richie quickly throws his backpack over his shoulder and runs out the broken glass doors of the gas station looking back at the entrapped person who still wails from inside, his front teeth missing with blood dripping out and his eyes blood red and bruised, he doesn't look too far from Richie's and Stan's age maybe even younger, but as they run further and further away the boy gets out of sight, the cries go silent and the two boys continue on their journey down a road to nowhere.

A few hours later as it's just about to hit noon Richie and Stan run across a small town with a red welcoming sign that says "Welcome To Derry".

"Hey we should look for recourses, I take east you take west meet back here at 2?" Stan suddenly asks.

"Sure, what do we need?" Richie responds looking over to the slightly sun kissed boy.

"Anything," Stan says as he starts to walk away but quickly stops, looking back at Richie and finishes with, "Rich? Be careful yeah?" Then turns back around walking out from under the shade from some trees, his hair going from a light brown to a dark blonde as it hits sunlight, Richie could never tell wether Stan's hair was blonde or brown but Stan insisted it was blonde even though it's been getting darker and darker ever since they knew each other, Richie could tell he wasn't going to be blonde for long. 

Richie walks along the side of the road, the place barren and empty, cars left in the middle of the street, purses and other belongings on the sidewalk, there was even an abandoned stroller covered in old blood but no baby in sight.  
Jumping from house to house but all of them coming up empty, the only thing he could salvage was a can with no label.  
"God, Stan is going to kill me." Richie groans to himself but as he turns the corner he see's a pharmacist right there as if God had heard Richie then poofed a pharmacist right there for him, Richie quickly jogs up to it and hurries inside to quickly scavenge for some things but the place is practically empty, trailing along the shelves, kicking empty boxes out of his way Richie can only find mostly useless stuff like hay fever medicine and hair products, but then he runs across tampons and pads, even though Richie and Stan definitely don't get their periods they could come in handy if used for something else, like maybe the pads could aid with wounds by being placed over them to help with the blood and weren't tampons originally made for bullet wounds? With his critical thinking done, Richie grabbed the two boxes then shoved them into his bag, "better than nothing right?" He chuckles as he zips up his bag.

"Who's there?" An unfamiliar voice demands from the back end of the store.

Richie swiftly ducks down behind one of the shelves leaving his bag behind on the floor, as he hears foot steps come closer and closer, they stop at his bag, "I'm not going to ask again! Who's here!?" The voice insists, then the foot steps continue walking around the store, checking behind shelves, looking for Richie but he's quickly dodging them, by following their moves but not daring to be cocky and catch a look of the mysterious person as they might also catch a glimpse of him.  
After 15 minutes of this cat and mouse game the person finally gives up and quickly snatches Richie's deserted bag and runs out into the empty street.

"Holy shit!" Richie hisses as he also runs out into the street after stumbling over a few boxes to try and catch the thief but they're nowhere in sight, "fuck fuck fuck fuck! Stan is going to fucking kill me!" Richie cries out as he just aimlessly runs down the street, hooking random lefts and rights to try and find his bag thief. On his fifth street of just running aimlessly he see's someone walking down the corner of the street, Richie quickly crouches by a rusting car and observes this person to make out if they're infected or normal, after getting closer and closer Richie is able to gawk at this boys toffee brown hair, his bronze olive skin with beautiful freckles that dance all over him and his two bags, wait- his two bags? Richie looks at one of the bags and spots that it's remarkably different, one is neat, clean, well taken care of while the other has patches, stickers and keychains, that one is definitely Richie's.

As Richie slowly makes his way to the small boy a low humming noise catches his attention, a noise he hasn't heard since this all basically happened, it's a car, Richie looks over his shoulder behind him to see if there's anything there, right at the end of the street there's a black van driving down coming towards them from the east side of town, Richie looks back to the bag thief, he's already seen them and swiftly runs up a rickety deck and into a decaying building, Richie tires to follow him but isn't quick enough to get inside, he briskly slides under the deck where some planks have fallen making a hole just big enough to fit through but as he scurries under the rotting deck it's tight, restricting a lot of movement.  
Richie is quite alarmingly thin but he's still 6'5" and this deck isn't forgiving to his height, he can barely even lift his head to see through the gaps in the wood to watch the van slowly drive by, the men inside look hungry, but not for food and it looks like they're looking for something or someone in particular, the man driving has bleached white hair though his dark roots are slowly taking over but the man at the passenger window really catches his attention, he's a dirty blonde with a fucking mullet that Richie can't help but chuckle at but as soon as any noise leaves his mouth Richie quickly covers it as he swore they had just made eye contact for at least 3 seconds but the man just looks on and as they drive out of view, their humming getting further and further.

Richie quickly backtracks out of his little hidey hole from under the deck and jogs up the stairs to enter the building. As he walks inside he can feel the rotting wood bend under his weight even though he couldn't be anymore heavy than 70 kg, as he walks through the old house into the kitchen knowing full well that this place was abandoned way before the outbreak happened, everything is old, rotten or broken and is covered by a thick layer of dust, some dust settles onto his shoulder that has fallen from the ceiling, Richie looks up and see's the wood slightly bending as someone takes a step upstairs until finally the wood gives way and the small boy comes crashing through, slamming onto the table breaking it, sending all the dust flying into the air making Richie cough, swatting the air out of his face he see's a short boy maybe 4'7" on the floor with the remains of a table surrounding him looking right back at Richie with dangerous brown eyes that are so dark they almost look black, he goes to get up but then quickly stops from pain falling back a little, pulling up their left arm as the middle of the forearm bends in the middle, he hisses from the pain scrunching up his nose.

"Holy shit!" Richie gasps as he dives down beside the boy looking at his arm, "okay I'm going to snap it back in place!" He yells full of panic.

"NO! DO NOT FUCKING TOUCH ME!" The small boy loudly roars, punching Richie in the face with his right arm knocking Richie's glasses off, shocking him with his hostility.

Falling back Richie grabs his left cheek that is still covered in blood and flies, "WHAT THE FUCK?" He shouts back giving the hostile boy an evil glare of his own with his piercing blue eye, his left is covered by his hair.

"BILL! BILL! HE'S GONNA GET ME! BILL!" The frantic boy starts screaming as he stumbles backwards with his broken arm resting in his lap until his back hits the wall behind him making even more dust fly into the air.

Richie quickly reaches over to his right, grabbing his glasses, placing them back on his face, though they didn't do much good for his eyesight since he hasn't cleaned them since forever and his left glasses lens is cracked.  
Richie jumps at the screaming boy and covers his mouth to muffle the screams, "I'm not going to hurt you! Okay? You took my bag and all I want is to get it back but right now I'm just going to pop your arm back into place." Richie as calmly as possible says before he takes his hand away from the boys face and gently grabs his arm, "on the count of three, okay? One . . . Two . .-"

"Wait-" the boy tries to interrupt but it's too late.

"Three!" Richie yells as he pops his arm back in place causing the boy to shriek yet gasp at the same time and he pushes Richie back.

"You're not one of them are you?" He asks Richie as he grasps his arm.

"I know I'm a bit dirty but come on, I seriously don't look like one of those things do I?" Richie asks feeling a bit offended.

"Well you're practically skin and bone, not to mention you're covered in literally blood and flies so I wouldn't be surprised if someone confused you for one of them but no, I didn't think you were infected, idiot, I thought you were apart of those fucking lunatics!" The boy spits back at him.

"Lunatics? You mean the guys in the van? Are they after you?" Richie grills him for answers.

"You really don't know? God how did you even get in here?" He asks back as he pushes his hair back out of his face revealing the sweat coating his forehead.

"I walked in?" Richie says confused not knowing where the boy is going with this.

"You walked in?! What the fuck do you mean you just walked in?" The boy asks looking more puzzled and even growing a bit angry.

"I just walked in! Past the welcoming sign and then you stole my bag and we ended up here!" Richie states.

"Yeah well don't even think about leaving now, you're trapped in here like the rest of us and you're going to die here," he says as he stands up picking up his backpack with his right arm and slinks it over his shoulder, "don't follow me and watch your back, you're fair game now." The boy says as he starts to run out of the old house leaving foot prints behind in the dust.

"Hey! Wait!" Richie tries to call out as he grabs his bag to chase after him but some other boy turns the corner blocking him.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" The boy with dark auburn hair asks as he pulls back his right arm, punching Richie square in the face causing him to immediately collapse to the ground dazed and confused.

"Bill! Leave him! He's not one of them, let's get out of here before it's dark!" The smaller boy says as he runs back grabbing the taller boy by the shoulder, pulling him back out of the building, leaving Richie behind to slowly go in and out of consciousness on the floor until finally everything fades to black.

When Richie finally comes to its already dark out, if there's anything Richie has been taught it's that you do not travel at night, the infected love the dark but his best friend Stan is still out there and from what that strange boy told Richie is that there's psychos running all over the place, right now all he wants is to find Stan and get out of here.  
As Richie sits up he touches his nose, feeling instant pain, blood begins to pour out just from the slightest touch, "I knew these would come in handy." Richie grunts as he grabs the box of tampons, shoving one up his nose to stop the bleeding.

Richie picks up his bag and steps foot outside heading straight for the east side of town to get Stan.


	2. The Huntress That Knows Many Faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Richie wants nothing more than to leave this hellscape, he's been robbed, punched in the face and now he's watched innocent people be gunned down by the psychopaths roaming these streets but he can't find Stan, after joining forces with a random stranger and an injured girl he now needs to take care of will richie ever see him again?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really struggled with this chapter I don't know why lolol, I literally had to rewrite the entire thing because I really didn't like how it turned out at first but I hope you guys really enjoyed this one💛

Richie quietly jogs down the street, every time there is even the slightest noise he jumps behind whatever is closest to him hiding, he doesn't know whether he should take what that boy said seriously or not, to be completely truthful he seemed a bit crazy to Richie with all his frantic screaming and his buddy punching him in the face didn't leave the best taste in his mouth after their first encounter.

Richie continues down some streets looking for Stan but there was no sign for him, even when he went to their meetup spot he wasn't there, as Richie continues pacing down the street he hears some yelling from behind him down the street, Richie looks behind him, two people are running down the street towards him, "Shit!" Richie murmurs as he whips back around running down the street but right before he turns left around the corner a van to his right from the next street over, comes screeching around the corner towards him, the tall boy quickly leaps onto the fence next to him hurling himself up the top of it and drops off into the front yard of another house where the grass has overgrown up to his knee's, he notices that the fence doesn't mask the entire yard but only up to the corner, he takes a few leaps forward but then see's the lights from the van come wrapping around the corner of the fence, like a flash he dives into the tall grass, masking him but not completely from view of the van, Richie starts to quickly grovel through the grass towards some bushes to hide in but right before he enters the bush's shelter the two people who he saw earlier from down the road come sprinting around the corner, the darker boy doesn't see Richie but the girl with fiery ginger hair does, when suddenly two arms grab the pale boy by the shoulders pulling him into the bush with them, as he tries to protest the person covers his mouth with their hand silencing him.

"Shh shut up, you're going to get us both killed!" A girl hisses as she covers his mouth even more.

As Richie ignores her warning struggling, even more, to break free a gunshot puts him in place silencing him, Richie's attention shoots forward to the people in front of him as everything turns to slow motion he watches the darker boy fall to the ground face colliding first, then he just stays there not moving, another gunshot goes off and the girl also drops forward to the ground but she's still struggling, the van stops right next to them on the road as three guys hop out and walks over to their victims, two of them standing over her, as she murmurs something under her breath as she reaches out with her right arm towards Richie in the bush's, he understands one word she says "help." Right before another gunshot silences her, her head and arm drop to the ground slightly disappearing behind the grass.

"Okay, let's check em for anything." The taller boy of the bunch says as he kneels down beside the girl and starts rummaging through her pockets.

"Nothing here, his shoes are worn out and his pockets are dry I guess this bandanna will do." The blonde boy sighs as he rips it off the boys head, Richie notices its the same guy who was driving the van from earlier, though the dirty blonde boy is missing from the group this time.

"Man I don't think we shoulda killed this girl, she's a survivor, coulda' turned her into one of us ya know?" The buffer boy exhales as stands up.

"Nah this was her boyfriend, she woulda slit our throats while we slept," the taller boy says as he pushes his greasy hair behind his ear, "c'mon let's head back to camp, wonder if Henry caught that littler bugger he's been looking for." As he finishes his sentence he hops back into the van with the other two following behind and they drive off leaving the two behind just laying on the ground. 

As the girl removes her hand from riches mouth he quickly runs out to the girl laying there and checks for a pulse, "what are you doing?" the mystery girl says as she emerges from the bushes behind him. 

"She . . . she asked for help! Maybe we could've done something." He utters.

"There's nothing we could've done." She says with pity.

"Yeah . . . I know," Richie says in defeat as he stands up to face the mystery girl, "why are they doing this? what is this place?". 

"I don't know," she practically whispers with a sad face, "are you new around here?"

"I just got here today, with my friend Stan." He answers wiping the dirt from his legs and hands.

"I know a lot of people around here, saw two new faces actually maybe he's one of them, what does he look like?" She asks.

"Uh, he has blonde maybe brown hair." He questions.

"Maybe blonde? Maybe brown? How long have you known him?" She asks suspiciously.

"Yeah I've known him since before all this, his hair used to be blonde but now not so much." He exclaims defensively. 

"Ahh okay . . . I saw a guy with light brown hair today, kinda cute, kinda chubby." She says tucking a lock of neon clementine hair with jet black roots behind her ear.

"No no, he's skinny, pale, hazel eyes." He says shaking his head.

"Sorry no, I haven't seen him around, but hey maybe we can find him together?" She asks with a warming smile.

"Together? We just met, why together?" He asks with uncertainty.

"Yeah, tic for tac, I found a girl who needs some help, you take care of her for me and I'll look for your friend." She says walking down the street.

"Why would you look for my friend? I can just look for him and you take care of your girl." He answers dismissively, still standing in the yard.

"Assuming you're following me," she says still walking down the street, a slight grin slithers its way onto her face as she hears hurried footsteps behind catching up to her, "she's not my girl, I actually don't know her but she saved me so I kinda owe her, now with your friend I can find him easily, I know a lot of people around here plus I can track him." She says gesturing to the bow on her back.

"You hunt?" Richie asks walking by her side now.

"Yeah, anyway follow me and stay quiet I'm going to take you to my place." She says quickly skipping off.

As the sun starts to rise over the town of Derry, a blue hue covers everything making the town look cold, the girls dyed bright orange hair standing out more than anything. "Have you thought about dying your hair to your natural hair colour?" Richie asks as he trails behind the girl.

"No, black hair is boring, I love vibrant colours." She quickly answers not giving it a second thought as she walks over a short stone bridge towards an apartment complex.

"But it's makes you stand out a lot, people will see you straight away." He says as they stop in front of a rusty fire escape that looks like it's ready to break off the building.

"Well that sounds like my problem doesn't it?" She says as she jumps up and pulls a ladder down, "anyway we're here." She says as she climbs up with Richie following.

Once inside they make their way towards the living room where there's a girl laying on the couch with a few different types of cloths over her to keep her warm yet she still shakes.

"What happened to her?" Richie asks as he leans up against the wall dropping is bag on the floor.

"I don't know, she saved me from a bunch of those psychos and some infected, she got pretty roughed up by those assholes." She says as she lays down on the couch and closes her eyes.

"What are you doing?" Richie asks confused.

"Passing time, we leave in 2." She says as she flips over facing away from Richie.

"Well what am I supposed to do?" He questions as he gets off the wall.

"I'm sure you'll figure that one out." She says as she tries to get some rest.

Richie walks around the apartment, taking in his surroundings, the pale emerald green wallpaper is peeling and has a coat of dust, the entire apartment is covered in dust, this place would give that abandoned house a run for its money with the amount of dust here, the shocking thing is that this place has two occupants- well now three depending how long Richie stays here, there's so much dust in the air you can clearly see it even in the dark, if someone had asthma they would definitely have an attack, though he doubts anyone with asthma would make it this far.  
Richie looks around the kitchen and notices the white cabinets have a pinkish hue splattered on them, as if there was once blood there and someone quickly tried to clean it up, he spots a bucket of small pinkish rags that are tucked under the cabinets confirming Richie's observation.  
The blood covered boy walks back into the living room where the two girls are resting and sits on top of a cabinet to rest, looking over them he realises that he never got the hunter girls name and he can't really see the injured girl that he's supposed to be taking care of, all he can see if her curly brown hair.  
From what Richie has noticed all of the girls supplies seem to be stacked in the living room all the other rooms seem to be ran sacked and empty, though there's not much in the living room itself. The cabinet Ritchie's on top of has most of the stuff on it, a few small cans of food, one of them being corn that puts Richie off, a small med kit that when Richie opens up is practically empty beside some bandages and Dettol, there is a pair of scissors that seem to be split in half to be makeshift knives, and there's another bow with some arrows though this bow seems to be smaller than the bow the hunter girl has, the shelf on the other side of the room is practically empty other than a few cloths that are just thrown on there and a few bottles of alcohol.

As Richie sits there quite uncomfortably, coming in and out of consciousness the two hours go by and the clementine girl sits up, looking out the window seeing it's raining, "shit." She mumbles as she gets up, putting on a neutral green coat and purple fingerless gloves, she looks up to see Richie is already looking at her.

"What?" He asks confused.

"I was gonna track your guy down but he's gonna be a bit harder to find now that it's raining." She says getting up and stretching her arms above her head.

"How can you track someone in a town? Can't you only track them if they're walking on dirt?" He questions as he also gets up but stretches out his back.

"Well yes but a lot of nature has over grown the sidewalks and there's fucking trash everywhere from these dirty bastards that you can tell how recently someone has walked down the sidewalk," she says tying up her hair into two asymmetrical buns, one is on top of her head while the other is practically at the bottom, making her look quite cute though the blood splattered across her clothes tell a different story, "anyway this friend of yours I'm guessing is the more reserved type, not the one to go running straight into a battle but the one to hang back and silently take them out, right?".

"How did you know?" Richie asks looking at her dumbfounded.

"Well how else would you have lasted this long? You are fucking useless my dude, when I grabbed you, you barely struggled! You didn't even reach in your bag or pocket for a weapon which I'm guessing you don't have any weapons, right?" She asks gathering her stuff not paying any mind to how her words could affect Richie, though luckily they aren't, he already knew all of this. 

"Me and Stan had a pocket knife each from since we were kids but I lost mine . . . Stan still doesn't know." Richie admits shyly as he picks up his bag and slinks it over his right shoulder.

"Oh man, I'm guessing he's gonna kick your sorry ass once he finds out," she laughs then continues, "anyway your guy is gonna act a lot like prey, once you hunt down a few deers you can kinda tell where they're gonna run off to." 

Richie laughs nodding then continues, "you know I almost had my bag stolen from me the first few minutes I was in here, a boy took it, not a bad guy but like one of us, trapped here, anyway I had to chase him down for a few streets and when I found him he had a fallen through the ceiling above me and had broken his arm! Then she buddy . . Who's name is Bill if I remember correctly just punches me straight in the face!" 

"Wow you had a shitty experience," she says as she finishes collecting her stuff and rest against the armrest of the couch, "that also explains the colour you have on you cheek," she remarks with a grin, "anyway you said that one of the boys name was Bill . . . He didn't have dark reddish hair did he?" 

"Yeah, why?"

"Well I'm guessing the one who took your bag was real short kinda buff, has a tan right?" She quizzes.

"Uhh yeah. . . You know them?" He asks tilting his head confused.

"Oh yeah I definitely know them, the one who took your bag is called Eddie and they're basically second to these lunatics, I'm surprised they didn't kill you and just left you with a bruise, Big Bill is fucking crazy he's definitely the type to just run into a bunch of dudes and just slaughter them all without a second thought and trust me I'm speaking from experience and Eddie is just as bad, he may be small but I've seen him and Bill rob another guy that was trapped here and Eddie kicked that guys nose in and snapped his arm like it was nothing. . . Though seeing how he's broken his own arm now it seems like he'll be out of commission for a while which is good news for us, trust me you don't want to run into them again." She says with a sigh of relief knowing they aren't as big of a threat as they were before.

"Holy shit, really? When I met at least Eddie he seemed okay just really panicked and he stopped Bill from brutalising me." Richie says honestly shocked from what he's heard.

"Yeah he's not as grounded as Bill but he'll do the same amount of damage maybe then some and when it comes to him giving you mercy . . . I don't know, maybe he has a type?" She finishes with a light laugh.

"Type?" Richie asks as he feels a slight blush creep onto his face.

"Well yeah! You can't deny the way he looks at Bill! Sometimes it's painfully obvious that he's eating him with his eyes ahh! Sometimes I have to hold in my laughter while hiding from them, anyway both you and Bill are tall and have quite piercing blue eyes though you are very skinny and Bill, just like Eddie have quite the muscle but hey maybe he only cares about height and eye colour anyway that's fucking lucky for you if he even has the slightest soft spot for you because all I've seen is a fucking monster." She says with a scoff. 

"Man it sounds like you've had quite a few run in's with these dudes, you have even hid from them?" He asks worried.

"Quite a few is an understatement, that's how I got this," she says as she lifts up her fringe revealing a busted eyebrow, "including a shit ton of bruises and other cuts, they're next to animals, though I did steal from them so maybe that's why they have it out for me." 

"No shit! What the fuck did you steal? It must've been pretty important for them to want you this badly!" Richie asks still shocked from this new information.

"Well Eddie used to have a fanny pack so I might have taken it and it might've totally had his inhaler in it." She says with an awkward smile.

"Yep that'll do it." Richie says now understanding their hostility towards her.

"What done is done, I'm just glad I won't be running into them for a while, anyway to your left there are two shivs, take one, you'll need it out there." She says at she heads towards the window with the fire escape.

"And the bow?" Richie asks hopefully.

"Pshh, you know how to use a bow?" She asks dismissively while opening the window and already climbing out.

"Well no," Richie says climbing out behind her, "but it can't be that hard right?"

"Hey maybe one day I'll teach you!" She says rolling her eyes. 

Forty minutes later the rain has lighten up a bit just a fine sprinkle Richie and the Huntress finally arrive to a scene that is familiar to Richie, it's where he last saw Stan, "hey this is where me and Stan were before we split up!" He says excitedly.

"Okay which way did he go?" She asks looking around.

"That way behind you, he stuck more to the tree's if I remember . . . So maybe there are some tracks?" Richie asks impatiently before joining her right after also looking for some footprints.

"Hey step back! I've already got some tracks okay? Now all you have to do is get some supplies, whatever you can, okay? But mostly you need medical supplies for the girl." She says.

"Well how about I just find Stan and you do the supply run?" Richie asks a bit paranoid of the situation.

Beverly takes in a breath and says as sincerely as possible looking right into Richie's eyes, "because if I did that there would be no reason for us to be working together, look, I'm not going to stop you if you don't want to do this but I'm a hunter, I can find him, if he is the better survivor of the two of you then he's definitely alive because you're still kicking, okay?"

"Well what's your name? Can I at least have that?" Richie insists.

"Beverly, though my friends usually call me Bev, what's your name? And what's gotten your panties in a knot all of a sudden?" She asks confused by this sudden paranoia.

"Well I'm Richie and Stan was meant to meet me here, we always have a meet up point and there's been times where I've been even a day late! And he always waits for me . . . So for him not to be here-" But before Richie could even finish the flashy girl quickly cuts him off.

"Listen, I will find him, I will get Stan and bring him back to you Richie! Okay?" Beverly says with her hands grasping his shoulders.

Richie breathes in and out and looks down at Beverly, "okay, I get the supplies you get Stan, when will you be back?" 

"When I get Stan." She finishes with a grin before turning back around and following the tracks alongside the tree's.

Three hours later of scavenging Richie has found nothing, except a bag of cotton buds and Q-tips, "shit I need medicine . . . Or at least food." Richie mutters to himself.  
As the pale boy stands up he spots his reflection in the window in front of him, he's now a lot cleaner from the rain still pouring outside, Richie walks out of the small corner store onto the street feeling his pants stick to the back of his legs he remembers how Stan always hated travelling in the rain, there's too many dangers he'd say though Richie never saw the risk. After Richie turns corner after corner searches shop after shop, he starts to get tired of searching and finding nothing, he see's a medical centre at the end of the street Richie gets a glimpse of hope that he might finally find something worth taking with him, Richie quickly jogs down towards the building, running past an alley way that he didn't even notice someone being brutally assaulted for their possessions, the noise being blocked by the rain.

The assaulter looks up after their victim loses consciousness and watches Richie run by, their new target, they quickly search down the unconscious person who's mouth and nose are still pouring blood finding nothing on them, they quickly run back out onto the street and hide behind some abandoned cars watching Richie try to get his way into the medical centre, though no one has ever gotten in there, it's locked shut but this is their chance to attack, catch Richie off guard while his full attention is getting into this building, they stand up from behind the cars pulling a rusty pipe from their backpack ready to strike and this person is no other than Big Bill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this chapter wasn't boring or a bit of an information dump, please let me know if you liked it in the comments! Thanks for reading 💛


	3. No Rest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Richie tries to find medical supplies for the mystery girl he finds himself running into one danger after another, will he ever get a good rest?

The medical centre is big but it's attached to all the other buildings going down this street, all the windows seem to be pretty tough by all the scratches on them with the rocks and bricks laying at the bottom. As Richie paces back and forth not taking his blue eyes off of the building he notices that on top of all the stores are little mini apartments, looking up at the apartment he see's that there's two windows, maybe one of them is his way in.  
As he wonders how he's going to get up there he lifts up his black curls from his face allowing the rain to clean the blood from his cheek even more until a thought strikes his head, quickly he spins around and heads towards the two cars behind him, walking up to the car facing away from him he rattles at the handle then slowly pries at the car door until it fully swings open, Richie quickly hops into the driver seat dust flying out from underneath him, as he looks around his surroundings he see's nothing of interest, everything is just covered in dust and dirt but the outside to the car is even worse there's so much dirt on the outside that he can't even look trough the cracked windshield, he wraps his slender hand around the hand break feeling the dirt in between his fingers and tries to push it down but it doesn't budge. 

"C'mon you piece of shit, work with me!" Richie grunts as he uses both of his hands to try and force it down but it still doesn't move, Richie twists around so his whole body is on top of the hand break but it still doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

Richie feels something wrap around his ankle but before he could look behind him he's already being dragged out of the car, Richie's hands try to grip onto the seat in front of him but his hands just slip right off the slippery fabric, as he gets tugged out of the car Richie drops smashing the bottom of his chin onto the concrete road.   
A metal pipe come crashing down into Richie's back, his empty backpack not cushioning the blow at all, making him scream in pain, another blow hits his shoulder making him scream again, as Richie tosses and turns from the throbbing pain as the pipe that Bill is belting him with keeps hitting him with striking blows, Richie turns to his side covering his head with his right arm as he pulls out the shiv Bev gave him with his left hand launching at Bill taking a slash at him.

Bill jumps back dodging the shiv looking at Richie surprised then back at the shiv in his hand, "you've been hanging out with that thieving bitch huh?" He roars.

"Shit," Richie murmurs as he spins around diving back into the car for safety but Bill is already hanging onto his ankles dragging him out again, Richie grips onto the hand break holding onto it for dear life as he starts kicking his legs with all his strength feeling something get smacked by the bottom of his shoe.

"Ah, fuck!" Bill grunts as he stumbles back grasping his face.

Richie continues to scramble inside the car slamming shut the door behind him quickly pushing the lock down, he starts to fix up his cracked glasses, pushing them back up his nose so they're secure on his face but then the back passenger door behind him swings opens with Bill climbing in looking furious but that expression quickly turns to shock as Richie starts slicing at his head, luckily for Bill Richie doesn't mutilate his face but he does get a good gash on his hand as he falls out of the car, "mother fucker!" Bill screams as he lands on his ass.

Richie quickly pulls the door shut locking it as well, he goes around to the other two doors locking them too as he listens to Bill walk around the car from outside unable to see him from all the dirt caked onto the windows, he starts back at the hand break this time using his whole body weight down on top of it but it still doesn't seem to be enough, he's too underweight to have enough weight on his own to get this hand break unstuck but then Bills shadow outside the dirty windshield catches Richie's attention, as he looks up and watches as a cylinder shape gets bigger and bigger until it crashes through the windshield with bits of glass bursting into Richie's pale face slightly slicing his cheekbones as they fly by him.

Richie opens his wide blue eyes to look out of the now shattered windshield only to be stared right back at by Bills enraged hazel eyes which one has a purple bruise forming around it, he leaps up onto the bonnet looking down on him, his face red with veins popping out as his bleeding hand is clenching down on his pipe, blood trickling down it, dripping off onto the hood. Richie instantly feels his entire body start to sweat from the fear he's got from just seeing Bill on the bonnet staring down at him, he quickly jumps back onto the hand break to give it one more crack before he has to fight Bill, possibly to the death. He lifts himself up high, hitting the top of his head onto the roof of the car then crashes down on to the hand break with all his weight and strength pushing it down with a loud squeak, then Richie feels the car start to roll back with an even louder more struggling squeak.  
Bill falls onto his knee's grabbing onto the roof of the car to steady himself so he doesn't fall off the car as it gets faster and faster until they crash through window of the medical centre. 

The car flies through the building running over chairs and shoving tables over until they crash into a pillar in the middle of the room, Richie's body slams into the back of the seat, the back of his head smacking the head rest, while Bill comes flying into the car from the broken windshield crash landing into the back seats, instantly feeling pain he cries out.  
Richie opens the passenger door falling out of the car slamming onto the ground landing in the rubble, getting bits of dust and broken pieces from everything they smashed on him, Richie staggers to his feet stumbling away from the wreck, towards the first door he sees, leaving the painful moans of Bill behind in the back seat. Everything to Richie is moving in slow motion as his head buzzes with a distant pain, the only thing moving fast is his pounding heart smacking so hard against his ribcage he can feel it thumping in his ears, Richie opens up the door falling into the room the closing the door behind him sluggishly to hide as he holds his head in his hands waiting for the pain and foggy-ness to go away.

After a few seconds of sitting down with his head in his hands wanting the groggy feeling to go away, a familiar weeping sound quickly snaps him back to his senses making him jump up to his feet, all his senses now on full alert, he can taste the old blood in his mouth, he can feel the dirt on his skin with the fresh cuts on his cheeks that slightly burn and his eyes drying out from how wide they are from fear, because the weeping isn't from Bill anymore, it's from the infected, they weep and moan which makes Richie wonder if the people are actually still there, maybe they just don't have control, these zombies aren't like the normal zombies he's seen in movies these ones will die if you stab them in the chest, they will die of hunger if they don't get to eat and you don't have to worry about the zombies with no legs sneakily crawling up to you nibbling on your ankle because they won't survive that type of wound, they were very much still like humans, easy to kill, but they certainly don't look like normal humans, covered in blood, skin rotten looking and eyes bloodshot red, they certainly look like the normal zombie Richie is used to watching on tv.  
Sometimes Richie has sworn black and blue that he's heard them say words before, but Stan has never believed him, but Richie knows what he heard, a few weeks ago he saw a zombie eating a guy, while she was biting him and crying Richie knows he heard her say sorry, when he found that guys backpack inside was a photo of him and the zombie, they were a couple, he's also heard them say no and stop while him and Stan were killing them, he can never get that out of his head, they haunt him when he tries to sleep, making it almost impossible for him to get some shut eye so now he rocks the nastiest eye bags. 

Richie quickly comes back to his senses remembering that he needs to get out of there if he doesn't want to get overrun and torn apart by infected, he quickly jumps up to his feet looking for an exit but Richie spots a bunch of medical supplies on a shelf next to a window, "jackpot!" He murmurs in excitement as he just fills his bag up without checking what he's putting in there, as he crams down the boxes and bottles of pills so he can zip up his bag he can hear Bill fighting the infected, he can't hear them crying as they usually do but he can hear Big Bill and he really sounds like he's struggling out there, it sounds like there's a lot of them and it doesn't seem like he'll make it, Richie pauses in front of the window for a bit thinking wether he should help Big Bill or not but quickly comes to a fair conclusion, "fuck that guy." Richie grunts rubbing the back of his shoulder as he slides through the gap of the window falling out onto the side side alley behind the building, running back to Bev's hideout, with the sound of more infected joining Bills losing battle.

"Bev's gonna love this!" Richie cheerily says as he skips down the street back to Bev's apartment, he walks up the creaking fire escape to the kitchen window climbing in, he heads straight to the living room where the resting girl is, "uh hey, you awake?" Richie whispers.

The girl quickly sits up on alert eyes wide and bloodshot red, looking at Richie with another one of Bev's makeshift shivs in her hand, "hey, hey, I'm Beverly's friend, she asked me to take care of you while she's looking for my friend," Richie spurts out to try and calm her down as he opens his bag showing her all the medicine inside, "I got some shit for you, I had to get it under some pressure since Bill and some infected were on my ass so I don't know what I got." He nervously laughs as he sits down beside her, "I'm Richie by the way."

"Jane, well you don't have much of an ass, you're skin and bones." She croaks as she grabs his bag to see what he's got, "and you don't have much of a brain either, most of this is useless to me." She says picking up a bottle of pills from inside, swallowing two.

"Ouch, y'know I almost died for these, my shoulders pretty busted and I've got some mean cuts on my face," Richie laughs defeatedly, even though she seems to be holding up fine on her own Richie can tell she's tired and hurt.

"Cuts? Barely!" She laughs, "ayway you ran into Bill? God he's a cuck." She says laying back down to rest.

"Was a cuck, after amount of infected he faced he was definitely struggling and the real nail in the coffin is that he didn't sound too good after the car crash." Richie says leaning back enjoying the rest he's getting.

"Car crash? Where the fuck did you get a car? Like damn, you really went through something to get these supplies, thank you." She says chuckling.

"No problem, sooo I'm guessing you've also had a run in with Bill? Seeing how you seem to know he's a cuck" Richie asks with a smirk as he zips up his bag tossing it to his feet.

"Well yeah, who hasn't? They're almost more dangerous than the other bastards here, but with that asshat gone we only have to worry about that little fucking rat Eddie, he's also fucking dangerous, don't let his height fool you, he broke my boyfriends nose over a pair of scissors, can you believe that? But hey, he might be easier to take out, he's quick to panic." She says with a devilish smirk, Richie can tell what she's imagining.

"Well good news, when I met Eddie he broke his arm." Richie says looking down at his lap, he can't help but feel bad since Eddie was a little nice to him.

The girl quickly looks at Richie with wide eyes of excitement, "no fucking way! You broke his arm?" She excitedly asks with a wide smile from ear to ear, "holy shit! You're like totally badass! You're like those assholes bad luck charm!" 

"Oh god no! I didn't fight Bill on purpose I can't fight for shit and I could never break Eddies arm! He fell from the floor above me and I helped set his arm in place." Richie quickly says waving his hands.

"You helped him?" She asks gritting her teeth.

"I didn't know who he was or what he's done! If I knew what he was capable of I would've let him keep my bag." He says looking away.

"Oh my god! He stole your bag? So you helped him?? You really don't have any brains do you?" She grunts, she can feel her face going red from anger just by hearing this guy talk, "you can't just do charity for strangers dipshit."

"Well I'm helping you aren't I?" He says pissed.

"Yeah but as a trade off, you help me and that girl helps find your friend, but you don't know Eddie, he could've killed you for Christ's sake! He's a psycho! Just like Bill, he'll kill you without a second thought, y'know doing this type of shit is good for one thing and that's getting you killed, you gotta realise that it's just gotta be you, you are number one and fuck everyone else." She huffs.

Richie stands up no longer wanting to sit next to her, "you say that as you lay inside this apartment relying on someone else's help." He can feel the anger bubbling up inside him.

"Hey once I'm healed I'm getting out of your guys' hair and I'm off on my own, I won't be around for long, don't you worry." She scoffs.

"What about your boyfriend? Eddie only broke his nose right?" He asks absolutely stunned by this girls coldness and disregard of other people.

"That asshole left me to die! Why do you think I'm here?" She yells.

"Hey calm down!" Richie scorns, "you're gonna lead people or infected right to us!" 

"I'm tired." She simply says as she rolls over facing away from Richie to sleep ending the conversation.

Richie sighs as he walks over to the empty couch next to hers, tired, angry yet a bit excited to finally get some rest, he hopes to get rid of his eye bags but that'll never happen, he plops down onto the couch, his heavy eyelids covering his vision as he quickly goes to sleep. 

A scattering sound quickly jumps Richie out of his sleep as he sits up straight holding his right shoulder he looks behind him to Jane who isn't in her couch, "Jane?" He whispers but there's no response he gets up to walk past her couch towards the noise that woke him up but his feet quickly slip out from under him and Richie slams onto his back, "ugh . . Shit," he grunts as he gets up but he feels something slimy under his hands and legs. Richie looks down and even though it's dark from it being nighttime he can still tell that he's landed in vomit, he looks around and there's vomit everywhere leading from Janes couch to the kitchen around the corner, "ooh fuck," Richie whispers as he carefully gets up covered in vomit hoping not to fall again, "Jane? You good?" He calls out louder and in an instant he hears foot steps running towards him at a rapid pace, Jane comes sprinting around the corner screeching and screaming as she tackles Richie to the ground, she sits on top of him as he tries to push her off but she knocks his hand away hitting him in the face then she goes in for a bite but Richie grabs her by her unruly curly brown hair stopping her just inches away from his face.

Richie can see just how red her eyes are with some puss oozing out, her grey skin with her blue lips that are cracked showing bright red flesh underneath even her tongue is cracked, she shrills in his face again as she starts to claw at him and hit him, with one hand pulling her back by her hair Richie quickly grabs the edge of his bag strap and pulls it towards him picking it up and slamming it into the side of her head knocking her off him, Richie jumps up gasping for air, he goes to run but he slides into the side of the wall then runs into the kitchen with the infected Jane right behind him, she grabs the back of his jacket right before he got to the kitchen window and starts to pull Richie back towards her, Richie leaps forward to try to get away from her but the left over vomit on his shoes makes him slip forwards smashing into the kitchen counter, he quickly grabs a flowerpot with a dead plant inside, spinning around smashing it into the side of her head sending her tumbling into the dining table and chairs. 

Richie quickly hops up onto the kitchen counter hooking his backpack over his shoulders as he shoves open the kitchen window and flies out, sprinting down the fire escape so fast the whole thing was swaying, "please!" Richie hears a familiar voice shriek from the kitchen window, Richie stops in his tracks and looks back up at the window he doesn't know what he expected to come out but of course it wasn't the normal Jane he knew just a few hours ago it was the hauntingly infected Jane who came tumbling down the fire escape rattling it more ferociously than Richie did.

"Fuck that!" Richie yells as he hops over the railing taking a leap of faith off of the fire escape crash landing into some wet grass below, he sprints down the street covered in vomit, his lungs full of fire breathing out hot mist in the air in front of him, not paying attention to anything, just running as fast as he can away from Bev's hideout and away from Jane who follows not too far behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyy! Let’s not talk about how long this took me . . . But thank you for reading as always💛 and who’s ready for our man Stan?

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this first chapter! Let me know how you feel about the fic in the comments please! 💛


End file.
